California News

Silicon Valley tech firms win privacy bill battle

By Steven Harmon

Bay Area News Group

Posted:
05/03/2013 07:15:44 AM PDT

Updated:
05/03/2013 12:33:57 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO -- Silicon Valley tech companies and other powerful business interests prevailed in a battle over online privacy rights when a lawmaker pulled a bill that would have required companies to provide consumers with data they're collecting on them.

But Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, insisted that her bill, AB1291, is not yet dead and vowed to bring it back next year.

The legislation would also have mandated tech firms, banks and other businesses to say with whom they're sharing the data.

"Californians don't need to be persuaded that they should be able to ask a business what it knows about them," Lowenthal said. "But in the Legislature, it has become clear that we still have our work cut out for us."

Facebook and other tech companies, however, failed in their attempt to stop another privacy bill, SB501, which would allow parents to remove their children's personal information from social networking sites.

The tech companies say the measure would be impossible to implement. But the bill, carried by Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, on Thursday passed the Senate 23-10 and now moves to the Assembly.

A coalition of industry leaders, including the California Chamber of Commerce; TechAmerica, which represents such companies as Google, Facebook and Microsoft; and large banks banded together to thwart AB1291. They argued in a letter to Lowenthal that it would have placed an undue burden on them to provide information to every individual who asked for it. Proponents of the bill have pointed out that the tech firms are complying with a similar law in European Union countries.

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Efforts to reach representatives of the tech companies Thursday were unsuccessful.

Privacy advocates contend that the industry leaders simply don't want consumers to know what they do with their information.

"If companies are fighting so hard against this basic transparency bill and are scared to even tell us what's happening to our personal information, they must be doing a lot of things that we wouldn't like," ACLU attorney Nicole Ozer wrote Thursday in her blog, Bytes and Pieces.

Ozer praised Lowenthal for refusing to "bend to pressure to modify the bill in ways that would have undermined its impact."

Corbett's privacy bill would give parents the right to protect their children by removing addresses, telephone numbers, Social Security numbers and bank or credit card information. The bill applies to children under age 18.

In an opposition letter signed by Facebook, Google, Zynga, Tumblr and others, the companies described Corbett's bill as unnecessary. They said it would require a social networking website to validate a minor's identity and age within 96 hours or face a $10,000 fine.

"This law would be extremely burdensome for startup social networking sites that lack the resources to process such requests," the letter said.

A gay-rights group, The Trevor Project, also warned that the bill could prevent young people from accessing support services if they face family rejection. The project is a West Hollywood-based crisis center that helps lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth by providing a social networking community.

Corbett, however, said her bill does not regulate content or infringe upon free-speech rights.

She said the legislation doesn't just protect children but also allows adults to protect themselves from stalking, identify theft and other crimes by letting them request the removal of private information. Other information that can be removed under the bill includes driver's license numbers, state identification numbers, employee identification numbers and mother's maiden name.

"This information should not be available and posted on the Internet," Corbett said before Thursday's vote. "It would allow stalkers to know where an adult or child physically is living and even provide a direct opportunity for a criminal to commit identity theft."